Page 50 of The Breeding Cave

CHAPTER FIFTY

LUCIANO

“I really have a craving for tea. Can we stop to get some at Pink Ivory before we leave?” Yeosin asked, bouncing on her toes in the middle of the elevator. Her hair was a mess from our fuck session on my desk. “At our favorite place. The one we met at.”

“No,” I said sharply, not wanting her to complain. “We need to get out of here now.”

“Please,” she whined. “The baby wants some.”

“The baby does not want tea. You do.”

“Please, Luciano. That’s all I’m asking for before we leave. We don’t know when we’re gonna be back in the city— if we ever will be back in the city. And … you never know when it’s gonna be your last day.”

“Stop,” I growled. “Don’t fucking talk like that. Never again. Do you understand me?”

“But …”

“No, I asked if you understood me. Don’t talk like you’re going to die tomorrow.”

“Okay,” she whispered in the softest voice I’d ever heard from her. “But can we please just get some? Then I won’t ask for another favor like this. I know what we have to do. I know we have to leave and never come back. Just this one thing is all I’m asking for.”

I gritted my teeth and blew out a low breath.

I didn’t want to go. I knew it wasn’t going to be safe.

But she was right. We probably wouldn’t be back—or not for a long time if we ever did return.

And this was the place where we had met.

It was a place where I had fallen madly in love with her, even if I didn’t want to admit it.

It was where I knew deep down that she was my mate.

“Fine, but you have to be quick. We grab tea, and then we’re out of there. We’re not drinking it there. We’re not going on a date there. We’re out of the city before eight o’clock tonight. We’re not taking any chances.”

“Okay,” she agreed, nodding. “I understand.”

Once we left the office building, I took her hand in mine, and we walked down the road to the coffee shop where I had met her. It was getting dark, and I was scanning every street, every alleyway, everywhere for anyone who might try to hurt us.

I didn’t trust them fuckers.

I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with her. Honestly, Yeosin should’ve been sent to the mountain because I knew that she wasn’t safe here. But she had a good point. If I didn’t go with her, they would find her. Somehow, someway, they were always able to find her.

My mind was a mess. And it didn’t help that she was pregnant; it was making my beast so much more riled up. I couldn’t leave her anywhere alone. Anywhere that she went, I had to go with her. It was the only way to protect her.

I was the only person who I trusted to keep her safe.

Sure, Brent could’ve kept her safe, too, but I had thought the same about Molly. I had thought the same about Joseph. I had thought that my brothers were able to protect themselves and our family when I went off to war.

But what was funny about war was that you never knew who you could trust. And I wasn’t even talking about who might betray me; I was talking about their strengths. Their will. Their abilities. People could train forever and still not be prepared.

I hadn’t been.

Not that time around at least.

“Yeosin,” someone called from above.

I tugged Yeosin behind me and stared up at a beast suddenly floating down into a dark alleyway, tucking his wings behind him. Not this fuckhead again.

“Yeosin, you can trust me,” he said.

Yeosin placed a hand over her belly, tensing up behind me. “Trust you?”

“Don’t talk to him,” I scolded. “Stay quiet.”

“Yeosin, please,” he murmured, still shielded by the dark that I couldn’t see his face.

I needed to get Yeosin out of here now, before he hurt her.

“I can’t even trust you when I’m sleeping,” she said. “You burn me.”

“It’s for your own good,” he said.

A feral growl escaped my throat, and I swiped my claws at him, lunging into the darkness. He swiftly used his wings to pump away, deeper into the dark alleyway. Fury was rushing through my body. I hated this fucker. How could anyone trust him? He couldn’t even show his face.

“Who are you?” she asked. “If you tell me, if you show us, then maybe we can trust you. But we can’t trust somebody who doesn’t trust us.”

“We’re not going to trust you, no matter what,” I snarled at him.

I didn’t care who he was. All I cared about was keeping her safe. Keeping our baby safe. If I lost them, there would be no fucking point in living. None. Everybody in my family was dead already. If I lost her, I’d rather just end my life right then and there.

“I know a place where you will be safe. Luciano, you could come too.”

“No, get out of here now.”

“I promise, I swear it’s safe.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” I growled, finally making contact and shoving him backward. “Before I kill you.”

If what she had said was true, then he had been the one hurting her. He had been the one setting her on fire, into flames. Causing all of her pain. And if he didn’t stop soon, he could kill our baby.

But, if he had wanted to kill her, he could’ve done it already.

He could’ve taken her plenty of times when she was alone.

He could’ve killed me when I wasn’t expecting it.

I couldn’t understand his motives. What was he doing here?

Was he really trying to help? Or did he want to kill her for good? And if so, why?

“I swear I’m not here to hurt you.”

“You’ve set me on fire more than once. What makes you think that I will ever trust you?”

“Stay behind me,” I growled at my mate as she moved forward.

“No,” she growled back, standing right at my side.

Her hands were balled into small little fists, and I could see the beast in her eyes. Ever since I had marked her, she had become more and more beast-like, but there was something to her that was different. Something that I couldn’t put my finger on.

“Why are you here? Why do you keep doing this? Why do you keep following me and burning me?”

“You don’t understand.”

“Then explain it to me.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Then I’m not coming with you. You need to stay away from me and my family.”

I was fed up, and now he was pissing me off. We didn’t need this right now. I needed to get her to safety, somewhere. And I wasn’t planning on following him, no matter how many empty promises he made.

The truth was that I didn’t trust him. And I never would.

Yeosin didn’t trust him, and she was very trusting of people. Almost too trusting.

When he stepped forward again, I grabbed him by the collar and hurled him to the ground, into the light. The dim light shone down upon his face, and for the first time, I saw him. I saw the beast. I saw the man who claimed my mate was his.

I saw my brother who I’d thought was dead.